15 2018 WECA Year In Review/2019 90th Anniversary Year Legislation WECA reviews the more than 2,000 bills and regulations that are introduced each year and refers pertinent ones to the WECA Government Relations Committee (GRC). The GRC is comprised of dedicated members across California who meet monthly to discuss legislation, allocate PAC and PAF funds for important initiatives, and support candidates with a commitment to fair and open competition. YEAR IN REVIEW WECA GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS RECENT PROGRESS Last year, WECA supported an effort by local activists who opposed the City of Sacramento’s permanent extension and doubling of the local sales tax – in part because of the city’s adoption of an exclusionary project labor agreement (PLA) on all city construction. WECA was also instrumental in the defeat of Senate Bill 825 (Beall, D-San Jose) that would have imposed a groundbreaking PLA on most construction by the State’s Department of Corrections. Further, WECA also supports two important efforts to slow the expansion of PLAs due to their negative effect on the merit shop community. Tracking, Stopping, and Evaluating Government- Mandated PLAs Construction trade unions prefer to use PLAs as an effective strategy to discourage WECA members from bidding on public works projects and prevent WECA apprentices from learning a trade on those projects. As part of a coalition, WECA has pushed back against numerous California municipalities’ attempts to enact PLAs. In 2018, WECA also helped to undermine a sneaky attempt to require construction companies to sign PLAs to work on contracts in the city of Elk Grove. And with other municipalities, WECA provided valuable input that convinced local elected officials to slow down and investigate the validity of union claims regarding PLAs. Tracking and Exposing “Greenmail” WECA has also worked with coalition partners to investigate, process, compile, and expose cases in which construction trade unions submitted comments regarding environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to local governments and state agencies. The objective of these unions is to pressure developers to sign PLAs. Now, some developers are suing the unions and challenging this exploitative practice. As a result, WECA and other groups track and expose “greenmail”, which is to blackmail developers and other entities using environmental laws. The collaborative efforts of WECA and other groups have inspired developers to resist “greenmail”. To learn more about recent CEQA abuse cases, visit phonyuniontreehuggers. com. WECA’s Client Services Team fielded 26,318 calls averaging 2,193 calls each month throughout 2018 - 2019. 85.9% of those calls were answered within 30 seconds, a decrease in wait time from 2017. CALL CENTER WHILE REDUCING WAIT TIMES WECA’S CLIENT SERVICES TEAM FIELDS 26,318 CALLS IN 2018 - 2019 CALL CENTER 85.9% ANSWERED OF CALLS WITHIN 30 SECONDS appearances from some of his favorite students. WECA celebrated its 90th anniversary on April 9, 2019 and released a video that looked back on the accomplishments of the organization over the last 90 years. Follow GoWECA on Youtube today!